From Emily’s BSMT Studio at Mana Contemporary

I am thrilled to be a resident artist with the International Sculpture Center at MANA Contemporary! This opportunity has granted me a private studio, uninterrupted time to explore new dimensions of my practice, as well as afforded me a vibrant community with which to engage. MANA Contemporary is a fully equipped artist’s facility with several hundred studios, a frame shop, shipping services, exhibition spaces, Keating Foundry, and the list goes on.

Saturday October 8th was the 26th annual Jersey City Art & Studio Tour, which featured open studios, a live performance of Amy Khoshbin’s, The Myth of Layla, Phoebe: Subtle Bodies: Astral Sketches, and Base 12, by Apostrophe NYC. MANA was bustling with curators, artists, and enthusiasts who meandered through the BSMT open studio floor plan.

The Myth of Layla is an interactive performance produced by Iranian-American artist, Amy Khoshbin. The focus character, Layla, is a political activist existing in a sci-fi alternate reality, where the US government controls public opinion through their media outlet, The Network. Khoshbin directly confronts issues like celebrity infatuation and government control through surveillance, with the use of vibrant handmade costumes, sets, and theatrical lighting. The performance reflected the ideals and political climate of the American cultural moment, which in my view makes this work not only appealing, but also highly sobering.

Following its final showing, on October 15th, Carmen Hermo, assistant curator at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art moderated a panel discussion. For more information go to http://manacontemporary.com/tmol

“I am very interested in this intersection between the spiritual world and the daily synthetic world, against which I feel myself and others reacting. I love this idea of the “Mall Astrologer” as a metaphor for searching for something greater within all the shlock. I feel like the mall was always a fairly democratic place, as is a dance club scene of the 90’s, where people came to connect or congregate rather than stratify. I grew up with shopping centers and malls being the village center, and in retrospect it’s really funny to think about the sincerity with which we would go to the crystal shop or the head shop within this corporate and bland mall. Beyond the kitsch of it all, is someone earnestly interested in a cosmic connection with those who seek her out though, and in this case that is me.” -Phoebe Streblow

Subtle Bodies: Astral Sketches was fully booked throughout the studio tour. Phoebe is currently planning to expand this project to shopping malls in the form of a kiosk. For further information visit www.phoebestreblow.com.

Installation view Subtle Bodies: Astral Sketches

Visitors also celebrated the opening of Base 12, as the twelve original artists of Apostrophe kicked off a six-month collaborative residency. Ranging in ages from their early twenties to thirties, these twelve have agreed to live and create together, renting a seven-bedroom home near MANA and making work in an open air space at BSMT. Founded in 2012 by brothers Ki and Sei Smith as a gallery in Brooklyn, their gallery gradually evolved into pop-up exhibitions and alternative happenings. The Smith brothers are now focused on their new project, Base 12, a 24-month international initiative to gather artists of differing influences, with the goal of fluidity between their creative methods.

Ten of the twelve artists who showed in Base 12

In addition, as artist-in-residence, I would like to share a few of my literary and creative influences over the past three weeks.